Friday, May 27, 2005

UN is impotent... again

We continue to see more and more examples of the UN's incapacity to function on any level that would actually initiate forward progress.

UNITED NATIONS (AP)-[off the wire, no link]-A global conference to tighten controls on the spread of nuclear arms preliminarily adopted a final report Friday offering no new action plan at a time of mounting nuclear tension in the world.

The 188-nation meeting produced weeks of divisive debate over issues ranging from Iran's uranium centrifuges, to Israel's nuclear capabilities, to U.S. weapons plans. But it yielded no consensus recommendations for concrete steps to rein in atomic arms.

The disagreements even kept the conference president, Brazil's Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, from issuing a summary statement endorsing nonproliferation principles.

"We have witnessed intransigence from more than one state on pressing issues of the day," said Canada's Ambassador Paul Meyer.

The conference approved the key sections of the final report Friday morning, but deferred final adoption until later in the day, when all U.N. translations of documents would be available.


Can anyone see this as anything other than sad and pathetic?